European Schools (19/3/2009)van Dijk Management Consultants 1. Content of the study 2. Methodological aspects 3. Analysis of the collected information 4. Conclusions AGENDA – 1 –

European Schools (19/3/2009)van Dijk Management Consultants Objective : collect, analyse and evaluate qualitative and quantitative data concerning : 1. The academic career of the graduates (with emphasis on the analysis of the geographical mobility / linguistic flexibility) 2. The professional career of the graduates (idem) 3. The strengths and weaknesses of the European Schools’ (ES) curriculum (i.a. the syllabuses used) 4. The social background of the pupils 5. Problematic issues such as « doubling » (i.e. repeating classes) and « drop out » (i.e. leaving the system without a Baccalaureate) CONTENTS OF THE STUDY – 2 –

European Schools (19/3/2009)van Dijk Management Consultants 1. Data on the academic and professional career and on the social background of the graduates were collected by means of an electronic survey on an Internet platform 2. Contact data of the graduates came from different sources : addresses of the parents (provided by the schools), addresses collected ad hoc, newsletter to EU staff, use of Facebook and similar sites, appeal by Interparents. In total : ± contact points, i.e. about 1 out of every 3, to which is to be added result of « snowball » effect 3. Information on « drop out » issue could only be collected in an indirect way, i.e. graduates commenting on co-pupils who dropped out 4. Results are based on about 3,000 answers; representativeness of the answers is sufficient (in terms of age distribution, gender, ES attended, mother tongue, years spent at a ES, etc.) HIGHLIGHTS OF METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS – 3 –

European Schools (19/3/2009)van Dijk Management Consultants ACADEMIC CAREER ANALYSIS – 4 – 1. 93% of the respondents have started an academic career (no difference according to gender or size of ES attended). 2. About 8 out of 9 respondents starting tertiary education obtain at least a bachelorship or its equivalent, but about half of them will need more than 3 years to do so 3. As far as geographical mobility is concerned (regarding the 1st university or college attended) : 44% start in a country that is not their country of origin (of these 44%, 14% concern the country of their European School) 4. As far as linguistic flexibility is concerned (idem) : 29% start studying in a language that is not their L0/L1 (min. : 14% (EN) – max. : 49% (SP)) 5. These mobility and flexibility rates raise to about 50% when tertiary education continues at 2nd/3rd college or university

European Schools (19/3/2009)van Dijk Management Consultants ACADEMIC CAREER ANALYSIS (cont.) – 5 – % of graduates starting tertiary education in another language than their L0/L1 L0/L1 of graduate

European Schools (19/3/2009)van Dijk Management Consultants ACADEMIC CAREER ANALYSIS (cont.) – 6 – 6. Concerning the academic fields chosen : ▪ about 20% of respondents opt for sciences, compared to 11% in the EU. There is a statistically significant relation between this choice at the tertiary education level and the choice of optional courses in science at secondary ▪ about 6% of respondents opt for health or social protection, compared to 13% on average in the EU ▪ letters and arts, with 14%, nearly coincide with the EU average of 13%, so accent put by ES on foreign language and European culture does not lead to an above average fraction of graduates specialising in these fields at tertiary educational level

European Schools (19/3/2009)van Dijk Management Consultants 1. 59% of the respondents qualify their working environment as being international, with a slight gender difference (65% for men, 55% for women) 2. « Only » 7% of respondents work for EU institutions 3. 65% work in services or non profit sector (excl. public services), and only 9% in industry 4. On average, for 64% of the respondents their L0/L1 is not their major language used at the workfloor, but there are significant and some- times surprising differences (EN: 49%, FR: 59%, DE: 68%, GR: 76%, PT : 53%) PROFESSIONAL CAREER ANALYSIS – 7 –

European Schools (19/3/2009)van Dijk Management Consultants PROFESSIONAL CAREER ANALYSIS (cont.) – 8 – % of graduates whose L0/L1 is not their major working language L0/L1 of graduate

European Schools (19/3/2009)van Dijk Management Consultants 1. Reasons for « doubling » of classes (concerns 1 out of every 4 boys and 1 out of every 7 girls) :  29% due to lack of maturity or motivation  14% due to difficulties with mathematics  13% due to difficulties with sciences  …  3% due to unadapted educational methods  1.5% due to SEN not met 2. Reasons for « drop out » (p.m. : based on indirect information) :  pupil sent to boarding school in home country (mainly UK)  disciplinary reasons (but result probably biased by some « high profile » cases)  difficulties with foreign languages  difficulties with sciences  difficulties with mathematics « PROBLEMATIC ISSUES » ANALYSIS – 9 – linked to pupil linked to system { { { «weaker» pupils have to leave the ES system altogether, since it does not offer an artistic or vocational alternative

European Schools (19/3/2009)van Dijk Management Consultants 1. Social background was evaluated on the basis of the professional and educational level of the parents, with the highest level of either one of the parents being considered as representative 2. For the professional level, 5 categories were defined : cat. 1 – 4 correspond to cat. A/A* to D/D* of the EU institutions, cat. 5 to low level clerks and technical workers ▪ level 1 (= A/A*) is best represented with 30%, and 55% of respondents came from families equivalent to level 1 (= A/A*) or 2 (= B/B*) ▪ level 5 is least represented : on average 11%, with « small » schools being more « democratic » (15%) than « big » ones (9%) 3. In 82% of the families, at least one of the parents has followed tertiary education; this is about 4 to 5 times the EU average SOCIAL BACKGROUND ANALYSIS – 10 –

European Schools (19/3/2009)van Dijk Management Consultants 1. Only 3% of respondents have negative opinion about the European Schools’ system 2. Depending on mother tongue, only between 15 and 20% of the respondents considered themselves less well prepared to tertiary education than their fellow students 3. 49% consider that studying at a ES has had a determining impact on their professional career DEGREE OF SATISFACTION – 11 –

European Schools (19/3/2009)van Dijk Management Consultants 1. The European Schools’ system, and more precisely the European Baccalaureate, opens the door to colleges and universities for about 94% of the responding graduates, of which 8 out of 9 will eventually also obtain at least a bachelorship (p.m. : 82% of the respondents come from a family where at least one of the parents holds a tertiary diploma) 2. The European Schools’ system leads to geographical mobility and linguistic flexibility for the academic and professional career : 44% of the graduates follow tertiary education in a country that is not their country of origin, and for 64%, their L0/L1 is not their main working language CONCLUSIONS – 12 –

European Schools (19/3/2009)van Dijk Management Consultants CONCLUSIONS (cont.) – 13 – The impact of the multilingual and multicultural environment – which might be hard to reproduce in national educational systems – should not be forgotten when appreciating the « success » of the European Schools’ system, as are the on average high social and educational levels of pupils’ families But : The European Baccalaureate, the high numbers of foreign language teaching periods (including CLIL*) and the use of native speaking teachers are perhaps only the necessary but not the sufficient conditions to obtain these results * CLIL = content and language intergrated learning

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Policy Dept B : Structural and Cohesion Policies Culture and Education Analysis of the academic and professional careers of the European Schools’ graduates Presentation of the results by VAN D IJK M ANAGEMENT C ONSULTANTS (19/3/2009)